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ENG: College Composition : West Potomac High School Dual Enrollment (Alexandria)

Direct comments to aanderson@nvcc.edu

As You Explore...

Think about and look for the following:

  • Is there information written about your topic?
  • What are some ways to focus the topic?
  • Are there particular demographic groups, locations or time periods to focus on?
  • Are there problems/solutions?
  • Who is (or should be) involved/impacted (e.g., government, non-governmental organizations, local community groups, individuals, businesses, etc.), and how?


Write down: main ideas, important events, key people and organizations, key issues or controversies.

Encyclopedias & Reference

Search Tips

Select the most important 1-2 ideas related to your topic.  Put the word AND between each new word or idea; this tells the database to look for resources with ALL your terms.

el salvador AND war

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases:

"el salvador" AND "civil war"

Because reference articles are basic and general, what you type in the search box should also be fairly general and not too specific.